Moving endoscopy services from Ramsey Cottage Hospital and centralising them at Noble’s was a ’communication disaster’, a report to Tynwald concludes.

In May last year, the Department of Health and Social Care announced it had taken the decision to consolidate endoscopy in the new state of the art and purpose built £1.6m facility at Noble’s Hospital.

This announcement proved controversial. It prompted an urgent question in Tynwald and a public meeting in Ramsey.

The decision was taken without consulting the town’s MHKs, the Ramsey Cottage Hospital League of Friends or the hospital’s Welfare Trustees who had funded much of the equipment in the operating theatre.

A Tynwald scrutiny committee investigation concluded that the move had averted a patient safety crisis by tackling a backlog in follow-up endoscopy appointments.

It said the department deserved credit for increasing capacity without spending extra money.

But the social affairs policy review committee report, which goes before next week’s Tynwald sitting, says the move was a ’communication disaster’.

It found: ’We conclude that, although the urgent consolidation of the endoscopy service at Noble’s Hospital was done for reasons which we can understand, the way it was handled by the DHSC was extremely poor.

’In its haste to implement its plan, the department disregarded the sensitivities of its own staff, two charities associated with Ramsey and District Cottage Hospital, and the wider community.’

The committee concluded the need to communicate the decision in the correct manner was ’clearly overlooked’ and the Welfare Trust and League of Friends should have been informed at the outset.